Method of wall construction and skeleton therefor



July 8, 1952 A. Y. PREBLE ErAL 2,602,322

METHOD OF WALL CONSTRUCTION AND SKELETON THEREFOR 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1 FiledAug. 2, 1946 INVENToR. yq Zrezz/YPM le I'o n,

July 8, 1952 A. Y. PRT-:BLE ET A1. 2,602,322

METHOD OF WALL. CONSTRUCTION ANO sxELETON THEREFOR 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2Filed Aug. 2, 1946 INVENTORS zfZrewfe Patented July 8, 1952 UNITEDs'l-MEs` PATENT, ortica METHoD F WALL ooNs'rRUc'rioN AND f sKELE'roN'rnnnsron Andrew Y. Preble and Joseph F. Golden,

' El Centro, Calif.

Application August 2, 1946, serial No. 638,102

(ci. "z2- 32) Liv Claims'. l This invention relates to Wallconstruction, and particularly to walls which include a cementitiousmaterialsuch as a concrete mix, or thelike.

In constructing a Wall including concrete for buildings, or the like, itis the usual practiceltoi construct and set up an outside form memberwhich is a solid Wall built of planks. A similarly formed Wall is set upon the inside of the space in which the concrete Wall is to bemoldedfand in some cases inside forms, or cores, are seti-inplace so asto form a hollow wall of the concrete. The concrete is usually pouredinto the `formsl from above in a succession of operations, and when theconcrete is suciently set, the internal cores are removed. In someinstancesy hollow, box-form cores have been employed, which are left inplace in the wall when poured. The practice outlined above, requires aconsiderable amount of hand labor and a considerable quantity of lumberthat is used in the inner and outer retaining Walls for the pouredconcrete. The Walls of the forms are usually builtin sections, -butthesesections are relatively heavy and usually necessitate the employment ofseveralmen to handle them and set them up. l k p One of the objects ofthe present invention is to provide a simple Wall construction andmethod of erecting the same, which will `avoid the objections pointedout above, but which will resultv in producing a wall that requires aminimum amount of cementitious material to produce it; also,'to providea method which will require very 'simple labor operations to enable theplacing of the cementiti'ousmaterial to be effected.

Another object of the invention isto provide a. method for constructinga Wall involving the placement of cementitious material Whichwill resultin producing a Wall having high insulating characteristics, that is tosay, which involves the employment of cores which may be, and preferablyare, of insulating material, which remain embedded in the completedconcrete Wall, and which. can be very readily set up in positionpreparatory to placing the cementitious material that' separates themand preferably covers their superficial faces.

AnA ordinary concrete Wall is illadapted for the attachment of built-inaccessories such asv cabinet work, book-shelves, or the like.- One ofthe ob jects of this invention is to produce a Wall, a considerable areaof which is adapted to receive and retain. fastening devices such asnails, screws, Or the like.

Another object of theinvention is to provide a composite Wall which canbe readily constructed:

Z by using simple operations, and which` will produce a wall that hassubstantial sound-proof qualities.

In the practice of the, method about to be de# scribed, We form askeleton Wall by vsettingup panels or -core ymembers that arespacedequidistant from each other soy vas to form molding spaces forstudmaterial Whichvis injeot'edfrom one side of the skeleton wall into thesevertical channel-form mold spaces between the upright core members. Inbuildinga Wall, a cementitious material is applied at one side of theskeleton Wal-l While upright mold members or boards are employed toclose the stud spaces on the other side of the wall, One of the objectsof the invention is to provide a method and means for not only effectingthe placement of the o'ementitiousmaterial to form studs in the nnishedWall, but also to provide a method for forming a bonding beam at theupper ends of the studs integral and monolithic with the studs. Inconducting these operations, the cementitiousA material is preferablyplaced by a pneumatic nozzle or cement gun such `as is commonly used forplacing concrete through the agency of'compressed air.

VAnother object of the invention is to provide, a Wall constructionemploying spaced upright cores adapted to have concrete studs placed inthe spaces between them, and to provide a method andv means forfacilitating the placing of reinforcements in the placed cementitiousmaterial, particularly'diagonal reinforcing members for reinforcing theWall proper, and for anchorage into the footing of the Wall and thebonding beam that connects the upper ends of the placed stud material.

Another object of the invention is to provide a tie of a formparticularly adapting` it for use in setting up a skeleton Wall inaccordance with my method.

v Another object of the invention is to provide a skeleton vvallparticularly adapted to enable a cement gunning operation to form aconcrete vvall` including concrete studs and bonding beams monolithicWith the studs.

Further objects of the invention Will hereinafter.

The invention consists in the novelv method to be describedlhereinafter, and also resides'i'n the novel features and combination offeatures that are embodied in the resulting wall construction.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is described in the followingspecification, While the broad scope of the invention is pointed out intheappended claims.

vvappear In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a horizontal section through a typical section of skeletonwall, set up ready for application of the cementitious material, theends of the section illustrated being merely broken away.

Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. 1, but illustrating a wall after thecementitious material has been placed at the studs and an outsidediaphragm monolithic with the studs. In this view the simple formmembers that are illustrated in Fig. l, are omitted.

Fig. 3 is a vertical section through a wall such as illustrated in Fig.2, and illustrating the wall after the cementitious material has beenplaced, and before the backing forms, or backing members, have beenremoved from the side of the wall against which the concrete or othercementitious material is placed. This View illustrates the manner inwhich a mold is formed for the bonding beam located at the heads of theplaced studs, and illustrates the manner in which a cap sill operates asatop side molding form for the bonding beam so that it will operatethereafter as a support for the ends of the roof girders.r

Fig. 4 vis'an isometric view illustrating the manner inwhich diagonalreinforcing may be placed in Ythe-,wall when the'wall is being built. jy Fig. 5 is also an isometric view representing a corner-of abuilding-with thecementitious material cut away and shown partially insection so as to disclose an arrangement of reinforcing that may beemployed in practicing this invention.

Fig. 6 is a vertical section taken at the level where a bonding beam isformed, and illustrat- '1.

ingmeans employed for enabling the depth of the molding space for thebond beam tobe readily adjusted to facilitate forming a bonding beam ofany desired depth. Y

Before proceeding to a detailed description of our method-and theresulting Wall, it should be stated that in practicing the invention inaccordance with this method, we set up substantially equidistant uprightcore members or panels to form a skeleton wall. While these core panelsmay be made of any desired material, for this purpose we prefer toemploy pre-formed material of light weight. In other words, this ispreferably hardened plastic material which has incorporated init a largeproportion of light weight aggregate such as vermiculite, cnders,pumice, perlite, or other light weight insulating material. Byreasonoftheir composition, these panels give body to the wall and insulationcharacteristics. They carry no part ofthe load carried by the wall.

These panels are set up upright against backing means to close off oneside of the skeleton wall so as to form vertical channel-shaped spacesor channel gaps located between the core Amembers. In practice, insteadof employing a heavy wall section for this purpose, we merely provideupright backing members in the form of boards placed in a verticalposition with their. side edges overlapping the adjacent edges Yof thecores. After this is accomplished, we inject moist cementitious materialinto the channel gaps from the side of the wall remote from the backingmembers. In doing this, we prefer to use a pneumaticA nozzle or similarmeans Yfor delivering the cementitious material with a high velocity andunder pressure. In this way, the cementitious material is placed in aworkmanlike manner, to ll the entire channel molding spaces formedbetween the cores.

The core members that we employ are pref- 4 erably of a compositionwhich renders them per- Vious to fastening means which can be driveninto them. This facilitates the use of ties to connect the adjacentedges of the core members, and has other advantages that will bedescribed more in detail hereinafter. These cores have solid bodies.

Referring to the drawing and particularly to Figs. 1 to 3, in building awall in accordance with our method, vwe erect it upon a footing I ofconcrete or other suitable material which, if desired, may be formedwith a shelf 2 for the ends of floor beams 3 on which a oor d may besecured, the level of which is substantially the same as that of theupper face 5 of the footing.

On the upper face 5 of the footing, we set up the backing or picketfence for holding upright a plurality of core members or core panels 6formed of any suitable pre-molded material such as those suggestedabove, and preferably having insulating and sound-proofing qualities, inaddition to having a bonding property for plaster. These cores arepreferably'in the-form of panels having a Width corresponding to thedesired spacing for lthe studs that are to be formed inthe wall. Asillustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, these cores are preferablypof cuneiformcross-section, and present supercial inside faces 'I and superficialoutside faces 8. In this way, a skeleton wall is formed with cuneiformvertical channel-shaped gaps 9 between the adjacent-inclined faces oredges I0 of the core members. At the outer side of this skeleton wall,we prefer to employ'small ties II of metal (see Figs. 1 and 2), whichmay be of bent wire, that is, wire that is bentto form an elongated eyel2 at about the middle point of the tie, which eye may be bent aroundor. slipped ontovertical reinforcing .rods I3 as shown. Each tieincludes two arms I4 extending in opposite directions andformed withintegral pointed spurs l5 at their ends, that can be forced, or driven,into the outer faces 8 of the cores. If desired, the reinforcingV rods`I3 may be anchored in position by employing wire hairpin ties I6, thebights of which form sockets for the reinforcing rods I3 on their outerside; the inner ends of the wire ties I6 are inserted through smallholes I6a drilled into the backing members II and twisted into a knotISb on the outer side of the board. These backing members are preferablyboards (2" X 6) of sumcient width to enable their side edges to overlapthe adjacent edges of the cores, after the cores have been set upagainst them. These backing members I'I may be secured together at theirlower ends and at higher levels also, if desired, by means of horizontalstringers I8 which may be secured to them by nails, or other means notillustrated. This forms the picket fence referred to above, andwhichoperates as the backing for the gunnite operations.

After setting up a skeleton wall as shown in Fig. 1, cementitiousmaterial is then applied preferably from a cement gun, from the outerside of the wall, and this `cement is shotlinto place in the cuneiformchannel gaps 9. In this way, the studs are built upfrom the upper faceof the sill I, up to the upper ends of the cores.

In Fig. 3 we illustrate a construction in which the wall has a, heightnecessitating the use of two tiers of core members I9 and 20, the coresI 9 being in the lower tier, and the upper core members 20 beingsupported so that a horizontal molding space is formed into whichcementitious material is placed by the gun, to form a Stringer 2lmonolithic with the cementitious material that .is placed between thelower core members I9 and after' placing; materialfor this beam 2 i.,the: gunning operation is, continued upwardly in. the. channel gaps.between. the; core members 20 up to their upper ends. If it is desired'to. form a bonding beam 22 of the cementitious--material monolithic withthe'studs 2-3, we provide ahorizontalbacking Stringer 24- (see Fig. 3)that issupported on the upperi ends of. the backing members 11o `(seeFig. 3) andv the inner face of which laps the upper ends of thecoremembers` 210.' This Stringer. mem.- ber 24' should bethick soas togiveit*A considerable rigidity, and if desired,y the backing; members I1aalso may be made ofthel same thickness.A If this is done, it facilitatesthe application of.. short cleats 25 that are secu-red tothe coremembersIlaand the stringere 24, by fastening devices, such as thenai-ls'f26..

In completing the molding space forthe bonding beam 22,4 we prefer toemploy a cap= sill 21j, the inner edge of which is-V supported onV theupper edge of the Stringer 24; This cap'sill may support uprightreinforcing member-S113. If desired,r the up.- per ends of thesereinforcing members t3' may car,- ry heads such` as the head 28', thatscat-on. the upper faces of the cap sill 21, when the rods: I3 aredropped down through openings in-. the ycap sill to receive them. Ifnecessary, any suitable means may be employed between` the upper ends ofthe coremembers 2.0 and the under face of the cap sill 21 to prevent anypossibility of its outer edge sagging down. Such meansare-notillustrated..

After completing. the` placing of the studs', up to the upper ends ofthe core me bers 2-0,4 the con-A crete is shot into the beam` mold spacebetween theiry upper ends and the under faceof. the cap sill 2.1, soasto.- make the beam. monolithic with the studs, and the intercostalsectionsof the beam between the-studs are thenI shot with thel guniteabove theupper ends of the core members 20.

The cap sill 21 is left in place, although after the concrete sets,v theStringer 24 is removed together with all of the backing members. I.1a;Aand any stringers, such as the Stringer 29. and. shores 3i),v areremoved.

The; cap. sill 21 is adapted to support the endof a roof truss 3|, but'.if it isl desired to form a firewall 32, thisshould be formed beforetheroof; trussl is put in place. andwouldl be. accomplished.l by placinga continuous/backing; or form 33.v in position as indicatedbyl thedotted lines in Fig. ,3, against .which the cementitiousmaterial maybeshot to form a fire wallf 32 Whichwould operate-as an .extensionto the.diaphragm or outer slab 34 of the cementitious material, which can beshot after the Studs and the bonding beam 22 vare formed; or if desired,this diaphragm can be shot continuous- 1y With the shootingof the studs?faces,v and the level of the diaphragm 34 carried on up as, the heightof the studs increases. .y

Such a diaphragm or outer slab 34 can be reinforced if desired, by meansof reticulatedV reinforcing material indicated by dotted linesi 3`5=` inFig. l.r This may be in the formof wire mesh held in position by furringnails 36'- driven into the outer faces 8 offthe core memberst'. Y

In Fig. 4 weI illustrate the manner in which Vdiagonal reinforcingy canbeincorporated inY a wall buil-t i-naccordance with ourmethod. In orderto accomplislfil this', one of thejsuperficial' faces-y of certain ofthe core members 6'.' such as.' the `core members 6c and 6b shown inFig. 4, are provided with diagonally extending channels or grooves 31 toreceive diagonal reinforcingrods 38 disposed in them as shown. If thefooting I is already in place, and such diagonal reinforcing is to beemcial; requirements.

ployed, and itis desired; to secure; a good anchor for the lower endlof.' each rod, it. is preferable. te support. the corezmembers 6a sothatA` their lower ends are disposed slightly'above thev floor lineindicated at. 3.6 in. Fig. 4. This enables a super-sill la to: beformedy in a space between the floor level andthe loweredges of. thecore members Sawhich would be monolithic withl the studs 40. The lowerendsY of the diagonal reinforcing. rods 38Wou1d have bent endsforminganchor4 Shanks 4 l; extend.- ngin the direction of the super silllav andl embedded in the same when the cementitious material is shot into. form it. When constructing: a partition wall, or aA light wallwithouti a da# phragm or slab 34, the grooves 31 would. be used and'made deep enough to place the rods 38. down below the surface ofi thepanels; so as not to interfere with surfacing the; wall with wall.board, or plaster. Y

If it. is; not desired to form a super sill la, then the; lower end ofthe reinforcing rod can4 be.v bent upwardlyl into a channel gap that isto receive stud material. v f

At their upper ends the diagonal reinforcing bars 38 would havehorizontal anchor Shanks 42 that would run intermediately betweenhorizontal reinforcing bars 43 that. would be placed in the bonding beam22a.

Fig.v 4 also indicates the position of a. vertical' reinforcing rod |3a.These would be embedded on themed-ial plane ofthe studs 4B.

In Fig. 5 I illustrate a corner of a building, the wall of which isconstructed in accorda-ncewith the invention.` This view illustratesv awall con.- struction in which.Y diagonal reinforceing rods. 44 areprovided near the outer face of the. wall embeddedV in the diaphragm orouter slab. 45. This location for the diagonalreinforcing can be usedwhere the diaphragm itl` has sucient depth to embed the reinforcingVsatisfactorily.

In this. embodiment of the invention, at a corner 445. of' a. building;'the upper end of" reinforcingv going to the corner, would be bent toform a shank 41 extending: longitudinally: with the meeting wall of. thebuilding and preferably lying alongside of. longitudinal. reinforcingVbars 48. that. run along in` the bonding beam. 49. In this view, thereinforcing at the corner 46 is illustrated as consisting of twoparallel vertical rods 50 embedded in the corner ory lreyy stud v5I atwhich the two walls unit-e that form. the

corner.

The dotted line 52 in- Fig. 2 indicates the depthof plaster that. can beapplied to the inner face.: ofi the wall. If: desired", the ends of thewire ties td (that will be left projecting out after the form boards l1.have been removed) can be used asties for fastening plasterreinforcing'.

Before plastering the inside of the wall', the location of the faces ofthe panels Gcanbe" noted so. as; to facilitate properly locating'builtiin ii'xturesY Y k.'lhepre-molded corefpane'ls' should have' asurracethatis rough andv pitted with! Smau holes. This makes anadmirable surface for receiving and hol-'ding of the plaster.

Inf Fig. 6' We. illustrate simple means that we may employ rwhere it isdesired tofacilitate adapting the depth of the bonding beam to spe- Forexample, ifA the beam has an abnormal span, the means illustratedenables the depth of the beam to be made greater. Referring to thisfigure, 53 indicates the upper portion of a core member, or panel, abovewhich the upper end of a rafter 54 may be located and supported on an'X-frame including a diagonal brace 55 constituting one of the bars ofthe X- frame supporting the rafter. In this case, the cap sill 56 Vcanbe secured by driven fasteners or nails applied at the line 57, tosupport the cap sill on the projecting end of the rafter, that is tosay,-the portion of the rafter that projects over the wall. The rafter54 of course would be located in a space between an upright or backingboard 58 of 'the picket fence which would include a waler or stringer59. Insteadof employing a backing stringer such as the Stringer 24illustrated in Fig. 3, we may provide a sheet metal backing apron 60having a flange 6| at its'upper edge, that hangs on the rear edge of thecap sill 56, the bodyof the apron hanging down so that its lower edgelaps the upper.v ends of the core panels 53,'. and being located betweenthe core panels and the backing boards 58. If a bonding beam is nottohave great depth, the upper tips of the core panels 53 may be locatedat a relatively high elevation indicated by the dotted line at 62, inwhich case it would only be necessary to employ a pair of reinforcingbars such as the bars 63. Y

' If, however, a 'beam of greater depth were required, the upper endface 64 of the panel members could be located at a lower level, givingthe beam almost double the depth that it wouldv have had ifv the bottomof the beam were to be 1ocated at the level of the line 62. In thiscase, additional reinforcing members 65 could be employed as indicatedby dotted lines in this figure. These aprons would be made of thin sheetmetal, and when Ya number of them are used, they would be used in anyconvenient lengths with their ends overlapping each other. They would ofcourse be removed after the cement 66 has been shot into the channelspaces and into the molding space for the beam that is formed under thecap sill and above the upper ends of the core panels 53. In Fig. 6, thiscement is illustrated as being monolithic with the diaphragm slab 61that forms the outer face of the wall.

It is obvious that if desired, the wall can be shot with a cement gunfrom the inside of the Wall instead of from the outside. And the panels6 may be set up with their wider faces at either side of the wall.

`Many other embodiments of the invention may be resorted to Withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention.

We claim as our invention:

r 1. A method of constructing a wall structure, whichrincludes settingup upright backingmembersspaced apart from each other, setting upsubstantially equidistant 'upright core panels composed of pre-formedmaterial having a composition that is pervious to inserted fasteners,and incapable of supporting wall load, and disposed so that their sideedges overlap the adjacent edges of the backing members to form channelgaps between the panels opening toward one side thereof, and havingsuilcient horizontal cross-section to mold studs capable of supportingall the load on the wall, placing reinforcing rods in the said channelgaps, applying wire ties to the reinforcing rods with their endsengaging the faces of the panels; and injecting a moist cementitiousmaterial into the open sidesof said channel gaps to fill the same andform reinforced studs capable of supporting all the wall load, and

continuing the injection of moist cementitious material above the upperends of the panels and onto the faces of the panels to unite the saidstuds and to embed said ties; and removing the backing membersthereafter.

2.7A skeleton Wall operating as a form, ready to receive an injectedcementitious material, comprising the combination of a plurality ofpremolded equidistantly spaced non-load bearing core panels, an uprightbacking for the core panels overlapping the adjacent edges of the corepanels so as to co-operate with the core panels to form a plurality ofsubstantially vertical channel-form spaces to receive-the cementitiousmaterial forming studs capable of carrying all the load of the nishedwall, a cap sill, means for supporting the cap sill spaced above theends ofthe panels, an apron of sheet material backed up by the backing,and bridging the space at one side between the upper ends of the corepanels and the'cap sill, andi cooperating therewith to form a moldingspace for injection of cementitious materialto form a bonding beam.

l3. A skeleton Wall according to claim 2, in which the upper edge of theapron is formed with a flange projecting over the upper face of the capsill to support the apron. f4. A method of constructing a wall structurewhichincludes setting up panels spaced apart at their side' edges toform upright. stud-molding gaps between them, closing said' gaps at oneside of said panels, and leaving their 'other sides open, said'gapshaving Ysuicient horizontal cross-sections to mold studs of cementitiousmaterial therein capable of supporting all the' Wall load; placingsubstantially-vertical reinforcing rods in the said stud molding gaps;supporting a backing Stringer on the side of the'panels where said studmolding gaps are closed; supporting a cap sill above the upper ends ofthe panels and forming with the Stringer and panels a bonding beammolding space open on the 'same side as the stud molding gaps betweenthe panels are open; suspending the reinforcing rods in said studmolding gaps from the cap sill; land injecting cementitious materialinto the upright molding gaps to embed the reinforcing rods, and intothe bonding beam molding space to form a bonding beam embedding theupper ends of the suspended reinforcing vrods and monolithic with thecementitiousmaterial placed in the s'tu'd molding Spaces between thesaid panels. f

ANDREW Y. PREBLE. JOSEPH F. GOLDEN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Deuel Dec. 28,

